Rose McGowan Has Fiery Encounter With Trans Woman

During a Q&A event in New York, Rose McGowan was confronted for comments she made on RuPaul's podcast over one year ago.

Actress and activist, Rose McGowan, had a heated exchange with a transgender member of the audience at a Q&A event in New York on Wednesday.

McGowan, one of the leading voices against sexual abuse, was at a press event at a Barnes & Noble store for her memoir Brave. She was answering questions submitted in writing by the audience when a woman stood up and confronted her about a comment she made on RuPaul’s podcast, What’s the Tee?, Variety reports.

During the podcast, McGowan made comments about transgender saying:

“They assume because they felt like a woman on the inside. That’s not developing as a woman. That’s not growing as a woman, that’s not living in this world as a woman, and a lot of the stuff I hear trans complaining about, yeah, welcome to the world.”

These comments led to backlash on social media where she was accused of being a trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF).

“I have a suggestion,” the audience member said. “Talk about what you said on RuPaul. Trans women are dying, and you said that we, as trans women, are not like regular women. We get raped more often. We go through domestic violence more often. There was a trans woman killed here a few blocks [away]. I have been followed home—”

“Hold on. So am I,” McGowan responded. “We are the same. My point was, we are the same.” The other woman was not mollified, coming back with “Trans women are in men’s prisons. And what have you done for them?” McGowan shot back, “What have you done for women?” The audience member was eventually escorted by Barnes & Noble security personnel as she chanted “White cis feminism.”

McGowan then “launched into a passionate tirade,” as Variety put it. “Don’t label me, sister,” she said. “Don’t put your labels on me. … I’m mad that you put shit on me because I have a fucking vagina and I’m white or I’m black or I’m yellow or I’m purple.”

“I didn’t agree to your cis fucking world,” she added, then said, “Trans women are women, and what I’ve been trying to say is that it’s the same. The stats are not that dissimilar. When you break it down, it is a much smaller population. There’s not a network here devoted to your fucking death [a reference to the Investigation Discovery channel, devoted to true-crime shows]. There are not advertisers advertising tampons with a camera lovingly going up a girl’s body as she’s being lovingly raped and strangled.”

The encounter was captured on video by another audience member who posted it on Instagram.

A post shared by Brandon? (@ur_werst_nightmare) on Jan 31, 2018 at 9:10pm PST

McGowan, whose activism is the subject of a new docu-series, Citizen Rose, then went on to appear on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, where, at her request, she had an unscripted interview. Many dubbed the segment as bizarre to which she responded on Twitter:

1) I had fun (as much as one can have in this alternate reality) on the @colbertlateshow any press framing it as “bizarre” I just have a different personality than you. I don’t follow protocol. And I will talk about WHAT I WANT. I requested a Dick Cavett free form hangout.

Support GCN

GCN has been a vital, free-of-charge information service for Ireland’s LGBT+ community since 1988.

During this global COVID pandemic, we like many other organisations have been impacted greatly in the way we can do business and produce. This means a temporary pause to our print publication and live events and so now more than ever we need your help to continue providing this community resource digitally.

GCN is a registered charity with a not-for-profit business model and we need your support. If you value having an independent LGBT+ media in Ireland, you can help from as little as €1.99 per month. Support Ireland’s free, independent LGBT+ media.

We and our partners use cookies on our site to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features, and to analyse our traffic. You can learn more by reading our Cookie policy and our Privacy policy. Click belowthe I consent button to consent to the use of this technology across the web.

We and our partners use cookies on our site to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features, and to analyse our traffic. You can learn more by reading our Cookie policy and our Privacy policy. Click belowthe I consent button to consent to the use of this technology across the web.

Support GCN

GCN has been a vital, free-of-charge information service for Ireland’s LGBT+ community since 1988.

During this global COVID pandemic, we like many other organisations have been impacted greatly in the way we can do business and produce. This means a temporary pause to our print publication and live events and so now more than ever we need your help to continue providing this community resource digitally.

GCN is a registered charity with a not-for-profit business model and we need your support. If you value having an independent LGBT+ media in Ireland, you can help from as little as €1.99 per month. Support Ireland’s free, independent LGBT+ media.